Cricket is the most celebrated sport in the country while other sports are slightly kept under the shadow by the audience. Hockey, which was believed to be the national sport of India, which is recently denied by the government, was also not in spotlight. Instead, many believed cricket to be the national sport of India , seeing its humongous fame. But, does this scenario actually holds true? Let’s trace through the past to figure out the reality.
Sports in ancient days:
Well, everyone must be aware of the famous flick ‘Karate Kid’ starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. In the movie comes a dialogue where Jackie explains that martial arts is not a separate entity but the way of life. Kung Fu is found in every daily activity of humans. It is so true and holds the same in the case of sports too. Ancient days hunting and gathering community had sports imbibed in every day activities which was later organized in the name of sports.
Greatest epics of India-Ramayana, and Mahabharatha enlightens us about how warfare was inculcated to the royal children in the form of sports. Archery, Wrestling, Javelin, Discuss etc are taught by expertise gurus and tournaments were kept among the shishyas to exhibit their talents in the categories they have mastered. Similarly, Chathuranga being an indoor sport also included war tactics representing infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariots. In modern days, it evolved as Chess.
Evolution of modern day sports :
Olympics being the greatest multidisciplinary sports event of the world was first organized in 1896, following the foot lines of ancient Olympics festival of Athens. This was the perfect period when sports emerged as a separate activity, regularised by a monitoring body with the framed set of rules and regulations. From then, nations of the world took sports as an individual institution and started focussing on it.
India took part in this famous event in the year 1900 with a lone participant Norman Pritchard who fetched two silver medals in athletics. A question may arise that how various sports with such a rich history was overtaken by cricket. Well, cricket entered India along with the British and first ever match was held between Madras and Calcutta presidencies. But this cannot be quoted as the reason for its popularity. There are more to go.
Sports in ancient days:
Well, everyone must be aware of the famous flick ‘Karate Kid’ starring Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith. In the movie comes a dialogue where Jackie explains that martial arts is not a separate entity but the way of life. Kung Fu is found in every daily activity of humans. It is so true and holds the same in the case of sports too. Ancient days hunting and gathering community had sports imbibed in every day activities which was later organized in the name of sports.
Greatest epics of India-Ramayana, and Mahabharatha enlightens us about how warfare was inculcated to the royal children in the form of sports. Archery, Wrestling, Javelin, Discuss etc are taught by expertise gurus and tournaments were kept among the shishyas to exhibit their talents in the categories they have mastered. Similarly, Chathuranga being an indoor sport also included war tactics representing infantry, cavalry, elephantry and chariots. In modern days, it evolved as Chess.
Evolution of modern day sports :
Olympics being the greatest multidisciplinary sports event of the world was first organized in 1896, following the foot lines of ancient Olympics festival of Athens. This was the perfect period when sports emerged as a separate activity, regularised by a monitoring body with the framed set of rules and regulations. From then, nations of the world took sports as an individual institution and started focussing on it.
India took part in this famous event in the year 1900 with a lone participant Norman Pritchard who fetched two silver medals in athletics. A question may arise that how various sports with such a rich history was overtaken by cricket. Well, cricket entered India along with the British and first ever match was held between Madras and Calcutta presidencies. But this cannot be quoted as the reason for its popularity. There are more to go.
How cricket surpassed other sports:
Cricket was played commonly like any other sport until it reached the international limelight at two incidences. One is in 1971, when Indian team won the test series in England for the first time and secondly, the forever memorable victory in 1983 world cup, which shook the country and placed it upside down out of excitement. From here, Cricket started evolving as a religion and the players like
Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar was worshipped as demigods.
The overwhelming response gained by cricket was because of other reasons like the easy to follow rules of the sport where every commoner found easy to gel with the sport. People started playing cricket in every street of India and imitated the styles of their favorite players. Sponsors started pouring in for it, seeing its commercial potential. Cricketers became the brand ambassadors in commercials, even in government ads. The rise of media, took every detail of the sport to the audience, right at their households.
Changing scenario of sports in India:
Recent trends of emerging premier leagues in Kabbadi, Football , and Hockey show that the audience interest towards sports is getting divertedto sports other than Cricket too. Talents like Saina Nehwal, Marykom, Sushil Kumar etc has already reached iconic status after winning in various tournaments and proving their caliber. Dipa Karmakar, the first Indian female gymnast, won a bronze medal in Commonwealth Games, thus opening a window for the not so popular sports Gymnastics in India.
Sathish Kumar Sivalingam, a wrestler from Tamilnadu and Hima Das, a sprinter from Assam who won the first-ever gold for India in the World Junior Athletics Championship recently, made the entire country to cry out of joy, shows that talents are blooming across the country from different backgrounds. Every sports person has changed into an inspiration to the youth of the nation. Few more like Bajrang Punia, Lalremsiami, Gaurav Solanki, Neeraj Chopra, Manu Baker etc are to be added to the above-said icons as the rays of hope in the happening event of 18th Asian Games and eagerly expected to stun the medal list with flying colors.
Good luck people…. JAI HIND!
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